Technical assurance for engineering and design practices
Technical Review Framework
Nothing goes out unreviewed.
The problems we solve
Reviews you cannot see are reviews you cannot rely on.
- Review activities planned in someone’s head rather than in the project plan.
- Review effort left out of the fee, so it is the first thing squeezed when the programme tightens.
- Technical advice issued by email, phone or meeting that never reaches a review at all.
- No record of what was checked, who checked it, or what came back.
- Reviewers too close to the work, or to its author, to stay objective.
- Producer Statement authors signing against a review process they cannot see.
Our approach
We treat reviews as risk management rather than a final check. The framework decides which reviews a project needs, who is qualified to carry them out, when they happen, and what gets recorded, from fee proposal through to close-out. Your people run the reviews and your Chartered Professional Engineers sign the Producer Statements. We build the framework around them.
The system
A framework that
- 01
Reduces technical risk to a level you have decided is acceptable, project by project.
- 02
Prescribes only what must happen and delegates the rest to people qualified to judge, so the same framework fits a sole practitioner and a multinational.
- 03
Keeps reviewers far enough from the work to stay objective, because a reviewer with an interest in the outcome is not reviewing.
The deliverables
What you receive
- 01
Technical Review Procedure covering all four project stages: fee proposal, initiation and planning, delivery, and close-out.
- 02
Role definitions and delegated authorities for Project Manager, Technical Oversight, Discipline Lead, Producer Statement Author and Reviewer.
- 03
Technical Review Plan template scaled to project size and integrated with your project management plan.
- 04
Competency Matrix recording who is approved to hold each role, with the process for keeping it current.
- 05
Go / no go evaluation tool for the fee proposal stage.
- 06
Rules for technical advice issued outside contract deliverables covering email, phone and meetings.
- 07
Review recording conventions so comments, codes and nomenclature are common to the whole project team including external reviewers.
- 08
Training for the managers and technical leaders who will run the framework.
Every practice works differently and carries a different risk appetite, so we adapt the framework to how you deliver rather than handing over a document pack.
All deliverables are yours to keep and use on every project you run from here.
The benefits
Reviews you can point to.
- Review effort priced into the fee rather than absorbed at the end.
- A defensible record of what was reviewed, by whom, and how each comment was resolved.
- Producer Statement authors signing against a review process they can see.
- Technical advice given by email or phone brought inside the review process.
- Reviews that survive a tight programme, because they were planned and resourced before the programme existed.
- One framework that fits a two-person job and a multi-discipline project, without being rewritten for either.
- Something you can show a client, a principal or an insurer when they ask how you manage technical risk.